Alfonso Lopez Won’t Be Denied as He Chases One More Chance at Boxing Glory

No matter what, Alfonso Lopez won’t stop chasing his dream. It doesn’t matter how many fights he has to take. It doesn’t matter whether they’re on television. It doesn’t even matter if he has to promote them himself.

Lopez wants one more chance at boxing glory.

Seven years ago, Lopez got the opportunity of a lifetime against former middleweight world champion Kelly Pavlik.

At long last, Lopez was right where he always dreamed of being. The Corpus Chisti-born Texan had always dreamed of competing as a professional in a big fight against a name opponent with world title implications on the line.

No, it wasn’t quite the main event bout he’d dreamed of while competing as an amateur as a two-time Texas Golden Gloves champion. But as one of the featured bouts on the televised undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs Shane Mosley pay-per-view, Lopez found himself in prime position to get an impressive win over a notable former world champion who had only lost to two of the very best fighters in the world, Bernard Hopkins and Sergio Martinez.

Looking back, Lopez, 37, is grateful for the experience, but also thinks it was probably just a little too much for him and just a little too soon.

“I was a little bit green,” said Lopez. “I could have used another year of experience and learning, but you know, it is what it is. We gambled and came up a little bit short.”

Indeed, despite putting in a solid effort against Pavlik over the course of 12 solid rounds, Lopez ultimately found himself on the losing end of a tough decision. While Lopez says he thought he could have done a little more to sway the judges his way, he said after it was over his phone was suddenly ringing off the hook with other offers.

That wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

“I had some bone chips in my elbows that needed to be addressed, and they really needed to be pulled out so I could straighten my arms all the way out again,” said Lopez about the mounting injuries he knew he had before facing Pavlik. “And they didn’t help so much trying to block punches because I couldn’t get my arms all the way to my head or my face properly and I couldn’t bend my arms all the way.”

Lopez said he knew had was in serious trouble but that he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to fight on television against Pavlik or any of the other TV fights he received soon after that appearance.

“With the time out of the ring I was going to need for both elbows to heal, I was kind of like, man, we’re at a point right now where phone calls are coming in and they’re all big opportunities I just couldn’t afford to take that gamble by going into surgery.”

After suffering the loss to Pavlik in 2011, Lopez lost two of his next three fights, which honestly, in retrospect, might have been just what had to happen in order for Lopez to make the decision to take the time off he needed for surgery.

Lopez returned to the ring in 2014, stringing three straight wins together over the course of the next seven months only to suffer a torn rotator cuff on his way back up the rankings, an injury for which another surgery and another long recovery was required to heal.

“I was like, hey, what’s the deal here?” said Lopez, still a bit exasperated from the memory.

But Lopez, ever resilient, stormed on anyway. After his recovery, despite not being able to get any of the top boxing promotional companies to give him a chance, Lopez didn’t let those things stop him from pursuing his dream.

Again, Lopez continued his boxing career in 2017, this time fully healed. All his fights since have taken place in the Lone Star State, most under the banner of his own promotional company, El Tigre Promotions.

Lopez is originally from Corpus Christi but now lives and trains in Cut and Shoot, a city located around 50 miles north of Houston that’s made up of roughly 1,000 people. It’s a place most famous for being that small slice of Texas tumbleweed pie that produced Roy Harris, a former No. 1 heavyweight contender who went 12 rounds with heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson back in 1958 at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.

Lopez is trained by 85-year-old Henry Harris, from Huntsville, older brother of Roy, a Cut and Shoot legend, who has been working corners and training fighters all the way back to his brother’s fighting days. In fact, Henry helped work the corner 61 years ago for Roy’s big heavyweight title challenge against Patterson.

Lopez has won eight straight, and he said he’s happy to use the rest of his title-chasing career to help promote other local area fighters who otherwise might not get opportunities to fight professionally.

“We give them an opportunity,” said Lopez. “They’re their own business, and they do this the same way I did it. They come in. They work hard, and they sell tickets.”

But Lopez hasn’t yet given up on his world aspirations. While the Texan has proudly worn a cowboy hat to the ring for most of the dozen years he’s spent as a professional prizefighter, he’s not yet willing to be put out to pasture.

“I want that world title around my waist before I’m calling it quits,” said Lopez, who once plied his trade at 168 pounds but has since moved up to 175. “I want Sergey Kovalev. I want Anthony Yarde. I want the titleholders. I want those type of fights. I want to get in the ring with those guys, and I want to challenge myself against the best fighters in the world.”

Until that day comes, if you’re looking for Lopez, you can probably find him somewhere near a boxing ring in Texas. Lopez is a local trainer, promoter and one of the few local fighters with a good enough following to actually sell tickets to his show. In his next bout, Lopez (30-2, 24 KOs) puts his National Boxing Association light heavyweight title on the line against Alvin Varmall (16-1-1, 13 KOs) at the Lonestar Convention Center in Conroe, Texas on July 13.

“I feel really good, and I’m excited about where I’m at,” said Lopez. “I think at some point, I’m going to get that big opportunity, and I won’t call it quits until I’m given it.”

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE